Hot! The Official Sports Car Racing Thread

[Matski]

Unfortunate news.

Didn't catch it earlier, was going to catch up on today's racing this evening.

Dumbest f#cking smoothbrain headline of the day...

 

[tonyshaw]

Unfortunate news.

Didn't catch it earlier, was going to catch up on today's racing this evening.

Dumbest f#cking smoothbrain headline of the day...

Heartbreaking news to hear. Rest in peace. Sending strength and sincere condolences to his family and friends.

 

[Matski]

IMSA just got underway at Long Beach

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[TopspeedPT]

That was a hard crash! 7 cars!
RIP


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Antonio Giovinazzi Onboard Pole Lap Ferrari Hypercar | 6 Hours of Imola 2026 | FIA WEC

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[klier]

IMSA just got underway at Long Beach

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And first race of the season WEC too tomorrow. 6 hours of Imola.

 

[Matski]

And first race of the season WEC too tomorrow. 6 hours of Imola.

Hopefully better luck than they're having at Long Beach. I've not paid for the WEC yet, wasn't going to be about tomorrow, but we'll see.

 

[klier]

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Live now. Max Verstappen is driving the #3 Mercedes, second place right now and 3.5 hours to go.

Edit; make that first place

 

[klier]

Gotta say the HWAs are disappointingly slow, barely faster than a GT4 class car. The M3 Touring 24H is going to eat it for breakfast, no comparison.

 

[Matski]

Gotta say the HWAs are disappointingly slow, barely faster than a GT4 class car. The M3 Touring 24H is going to eat it for breakfast, no comparison.

Just how it is... The BMW is essentially a GT3 car the HWAs aren't.

 

[asrapid1]

FIA Reveals First Details on F1’s Switch to V8 Engines: Louder, Less Hybrid, a ‘No-Brainer
The drive

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem‘s bombshell announcement ahead of the Miami Formula 1 Grand Prix that high-revving V8 engines will return to the sport as soon as 2030, officially ending the hybrid V6 era, raised a ton of questions over the long weekend. Today, we have some early answers. Immediately following the race, Ben Sulayem sat down with The Drive to share specific details on the biggest technical shakeup F1 has seen in a long time: how it’ll happen, what the targets are, and why he believes it’s vital for F1’s future.

Throughout the nearly 30-minute chat, Ben Sulayem explained the switch back to V8s is driven by three main factors: cost, weight, and purity for drivers and fans alike. But at its core, Ben Sulayem pointed out that even following the updates to the 2026 regulations, F1’s current hybrid V6 powertrain is still a vision of the future that was conceived all the way back in 2013. Technology has changed, the pressures on the sport’s manufacturers have changed, and so have the ways F1 can feasibly reach its goals for financial security, environmental sustainability, and heart-pounding racing.

“We now have this engine, which is a 1.6-liter, and it did what it had to do, in a way, but think it’s the 14th year and we still have it, you know?” he said.

“I believe that for the sake of the sustainability of the business—the cost, the efficiency, the lighter weight, the sound for the fans—I think [the V8] ticks many boxes,” he said. “The MGUH was, at the time, the future, but now it’s not. Now we’re using the MGUK, with the battery with a turbo and 1.6-liter, but it is such a complicated engine, and a very expensive engine for R&D, and also for the sale of an engine [to a customer team]. But if you make it simple, others can afford it.”
The new V8 will certainly be “a bit” of a hybrid, as Ben Sulayem put it, but the advent of sustainable fuels has opened the door to bigger, cheaper engines more in line with what fans what to hear from the pinnacle of motorsport. “With all due respect, electrification is not the only solution,” he said.

Ben Sulayem went on to share some early technical specs for the V8, as if to emphasize that this isn’t the FIA’s “idea of the month” whipped up in response to complaints about how the current regulations and their 50/50 split between gas and electric power have altered the on-track action. These included potential displacement, horsepower rating, and the target energy split. Spoiler alert: It’s not 50/50.

“First of all, you have to get the power,” he said. “You can’t get the power with less than a 2.5- or 2.6-liter, so you’re talking about between 2.6- to 3.0 liters. Then, having a 10% [energy split], you will get to 880 horsepower, but then the car [gas engine] will be about 650 hp, I think. Because, one thing we have to be also careful about is, where do you get the power from if you have small displacement? That’d be the heads, and revs, so if you’re a bit high, it will be annoying to young kids.

“You don’t want it to be over 15,500 to 16,000 rpm,” he added. “Once you go there, the frequency is really annoying, so we have to be responsible. But even if you allow them to reach higher rpm, it’s not about the noise adaptation of the sound. It’s more than that, it’s the price [of development] will just jump, because then you are after that refinement, which is very expensive.

“It will be that [a 10% to 20% electric power split], it’s not more than that. Not at all,” he concluded.

Despite Ben Sulayem’s past comments about the viability of V8s being met with skepticism by teams, he said it’s only a question of when, not if this will happen. The new V8 could arrive in 2030 if four of F1’s six power unit manufacturers—Mercedes-AMG, Ferrari, Honda, Audi, Red Bull Ford, and Alpine Racing—vote to approve it. If they don’t, Ben Sulayem said the FIA will use its power to unilaterally force the change for 2031. But he’s equally confident the manufacturers are getting on board following a number of previously undisclosed meetings between the governing body and technical teams

“I believe that when we introduce it, I feel that even McLaren will do their own engine. They wouldn’t be going to others, because [the reason] why they are going to others is because it is a complicated power unit. They say, ‘We better go and buy what is available, than introduce [our] new engine.’ We [the FIA] says, these are the rules; we just put a ceiling for them, and make sure the teams don’t exceed in the R&D, except what is allocated to them with the cost cap,” he added.

This makes a lot of sense in theory, but whether McLaren Racing has any desire or capacity to build its own F1 power unit remains to be seen. Sure, McLaren Automotive already has some of the world’s best high-performance V8s, all of them turbocharged. And McLaren hasn’t exactly been happy with how Mercedes has been treating them as a customer, feeling they were left with unanswered questions about the power unit’s performance while Mercedes dominated the first few races of the season.

Regardless, this is shaping up to be a massive departure for F1 powertrains—so massive, you might think that Ben Sulayem is just off on another wild tangent, like when he made headlines last year by saying he wanted to bring V10 engines back to F1. This time, however, there’s a lot more evidence that the FIA is dead serious. According to The Detroit News, GM Performance Power Units LLC, the branch dedicated to building the F1 PU before the end of the decade, isn’t just working on the current regulations’ electrified V6; it’s also apparently working on “a V8 engine powered by sustainable fuels.”

 

[klier]

BMW BREAKS THROUGH WITH SPA ONE-TWO ON TEAM WRT’S HOME TURF

BMW has ended a 27-year absence from the top step of the podium at the pinnacle of international endurance racing, by clinching a memorable triumph in today’s TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

 

[Matski]

Did you watch the race @klier?

I bought the WEC pass in the end, but yesterday didn't go to plan so am catching up this morning (albeit with my phone showing me the result last night).

 

[klier]

Did you watch the race @klier?

I bought the WEC pass in the end, but yesterday didn't go to plan so am catching up this morning (albeit with my phone showing me the result last night).

Yeah, it was exciting to say the least. Sitting at the tip of my chair for the last part.
Great to hear you bought the pass, the countdown to Le Mans has already started on the FIA site. One month to go! And in the meantime next week of course the 24H of the Nring, my by far most anticipated event of the year.

 

[Matski]

eah, it was exciting to say the least. Sitting at the tip of my chair for the last part.
Great to hear you bought the pass, the countdown to Le Mans has already started on the FIA site.

Goddamn do I hate Martin Haven, the cancer of English Motorsport commentary.

That aside, Pipo's effort and tears at the end of the race for Genesis...

Rast and Frijns for WRT BMW... rewind a few years and that would be the Audi triple threat!

 

[Matski]

 

[Matski]

 

[klier]

I checked the weather for the 24h @Matski.......my GAWD

24h Nürburgring 2026 Weather Forecast Event Dates: May 14 – May 17, 2026​

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Forecast Overview

Date	Day Condition	Night Condition	High / Low	Wind
Thu, May 14	Light rain	Partly cloudy	8°C / 3°C	11 mph W
Fri, May 15	Partly sunny	Mostly cloudy	10°C / 3°C	8 mph N
Sat, May 16	Rain and snow	Clear / periodic clouds	11°C / 3°C	8 mph NW
Sun, May 17	Mostly cloudy	Light rain	14°C / 4°C	8 mph SW

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Live Conditions

As of May 11, 2026, at 11:34 PM, it is 2°C and clear at the circuit. The wind is coming from the northwest at 9 mph, with a humidity of 83% and a feels-like temperature of -1°C.

Strategic Note: Race day (Saturday) currently shows a 25% chance of snow during the daytime. Ensure teams are prepared for rapid tire changes and extreme visibility shifts common to the Eifel region.

 

[Matski]

Strategic Note: Race day (Saturday) currently shows a 25% chance of snow during the daytime. Ensure teams are prepared for rapid tire changes and extreme visibility shifts common to the Eifel region.

Oh great, could do without 8 hour red flags for weather.

Remember this...

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Don't want that again!

 

[klier]

Damn yeah......crazy

I really don't want no red flags to ruin my weekend. Am so looking forward to this.

 

[klier]

GENTLEMEN

The 24h of the Nurburgring is upon us this weekend. The greatest race of the year!!

Free for all on YT! Qualifying starts today:

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